News Olympus Sells Imaging Division

The Olympus Pen F digital was officially discontinued this past February. But the EPL10 is coming out. So that's 10 generations of the EPL series in less than 10 years, and only one attempt at the Pen F. No wonder Olympus has to sell the Imaging Division. They don't know how to make and sell cameras anymore.
Has the F been discontinued everywhere? It's still available at most major retailers in the US. Are they still just selling leftovers?

The E-PL10 actually came out at the end of last year, so less than 10 years, way too frequent.
Funny how the Pen F seems really popular here. To be honest I thought the EM5II was the better camera in terms of handling and image quality. The Pen F looked cool, but I didn't really connect with it.
The E-M5.2 handled better, but so far I'm enjoying the Pen F more than I did the E-M5.2

I kept waiting for the second generation of the Pen F to come out so that the first gen would drop in price to a level I could afford. I finally got tired of waiting and shifted to Nikon.
Yeah, there were definitely different camps when it came to preference of body styles... Rangefinder style (Pen-F - 1 body), SLR style (E-M... - 10 bodies) and Point-and-shoot-style (E-P, E-PL, E-PM ~12 bodies).

Point-and-shoot style seemed to be quite successful in Japan - that's what they released most bodies of, and that's possibly the majority of what we're going to get moving forward...(?)

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Either way - I was and still am a happy m43 user. M43 was a great system for me for the last 7 or 8 years.
For some time it was the best mirrorless system - and it's still holding some unique value proposition right now...

Looking into the far future I guess I might end up with Canon.
I like Canon's lens-choices so far (especially the idea of slower and small(?) telephoto lenses).
They're not quite there yet, but until they are m43 will continue to serve me fine :)
There was a camera registered last month that should still be released and there has been a lot of talk about a Pen F.2 lately. If they release one that's sealed and has phase AF I might be interested, if not then I don't have to worry about upgrading my Lightroom 6.14.
 
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I get a lot of hits when searching for the status on this camera. It is 4 years old, no major updates on firmware. Probably some left in stock, in Black. B&H states that the Silver body is discontinued, probably meaning no more to be had to fill orders. The black body camera is still on sale. I suspect it too is discontinued, but have some new cameras still in stock. I think that Olympus just had too many series of cameras, should have cut it down to a few. With the announcement of the Division being sold, who will spend $2000 on a new Olympus u43 body? Of course I spent that much on a Nikon SP 20 years ago, when the line was long discontinued.
 
.......I still plan on buying the recently released 12-45 f/4 Pro and (while not the telephoto I want) I could make do with the 100-400mm that has been rumored to be the lens registered last week. On a plus side if there aren't any new bodies I can keep using LR 6.14 and not have to worry about finding something new.
Dang, now I might have to rethink this.

New updated road map today. If they do actually manage to release the 8-25 f/4 Pro would that replace my desire for the 12-45 f/4 Pro? I suspect it's not going to be small so it probably wouldn't replace my wanting the 12-45, but I would probably be more than a bit tempted to replace my PL 8-18 f/2.8-4.0 with it. A range of 8-25 would be great on my E-M1.2.
 
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PEN Cameras | Olympus Cameras, Audio & Binoculars Click on "Compare Pen Cameras"

The EPL10 does not seem to be much different from the EPL9. It reminds me of the "Obsolete Computer" cartoons where the kid throws away his week old machine because the new one comes out in a new color.

The EPL10... " New All-Black Color" The other features seem to be more firmware updates, " New Art Filter Strength Customization, New All-Black Color, Advanced Photography Modes, Fast Wi-Fi "
Note the word "fast Wi-Fi" for the EPL10, and just "Wi-Fi" for the EPL9. It tells me that I should stick with my EPM1 until the prices drop on the never-ending meaningless updated camera bodies.
 
PEN Cameras | Olympus Cameras, Audio & Binoculars Click on "Compare Pen Cameras"

The EPL10 does not seem to be much different from the EPL9. It reminds me of the "Obsolete Computer" cartoons where the kid throws away his week old machine because the new one comes out in a new color.

The EPL10... " New All-Black Color" The other features seem to be more firmware updates, " New Art Filter Strength Customization, New All-Black Color, Advanced Photography Modes, Fast Wi-Fi "
Note the word "fast Wi-Fi" for the EPL10, and just "Wi-Fi" for the EPL9. It tells me that I should stick with my EPM1 until the prices drop on the never-ending meaningless updated camera bodies.
Not really much different at all. It was originally just an Asia-Pacific market release. I wonder if there was something specific to that region that was an issue that needed to be addressed (pure speculation).

Edit: Why DPR decided to do a review now seems odd. They didn't review the E-PL8 (first look only) or E-PL9 and then waited 7-9 months to do an E-PL10 review knowing that the tech is really going appear a bit dated? They really should have reviewed the E-PL9; first without the add-on port and built in flash; first the new AF system; .......
 
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Might take a while - but it could get there :) I picked up a brand-new (old stock obviously) Olympus 12-60mm four thirds lens for 300$ two years ago :)
Several years ago, when I had an E-M5, my first m4/3, I had an MMF-3 and at various times, a ZD 14-54 MKII, a ZD 11-22, and a ZD 50-200 SWD. Really nice IQ, but man, the last 2 were huge and heavy!

I wonder why Olympus never made any small, weather sealed lenses? I know I've read many comments about that through the years, and Olympus versions of the Fujicrons I think would have sold very well. Imagine the original E-M5 with a 17mm 1.8, 25mm 1.8, and 38mm 1.8, all small and weather sealed.
 
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Will there be more Olympus cameras after 2020? - Photo Rumors
Olympus financial losses over the years:
Olympus-financial-losses-over-the-years-550x389.jpg

Japan Industrial Partners will not use the Olympus brand.


and Sharp is still coming to m43 with 8K camera... Maybe they should have bought Olympus.
The world's smallest Sharp 8k interchangeable MFT lens video camera should be announced soon - Photo Rumors
From Apr 2019:
 
One thing I came across the other day.

JIP might mainly be a buy / strip assets / sell company, but not always. Sites have mentioned Sony's Vaio and ITX Corp. What they often seem to fail to mention is that JIP also bought ITX Corp from Olympus and it still exists. I know JIP hasn't done a lot with the Vaio brand, not anything ground breaking in the least. But I guess one thing we may never know, or at least not know for a while is: "Who far along in the development are the lenses on the lens roadmap?"

Just a thought.
 
This was mentioned on the Olympus OMD Facebook Page by the admin translated from Japanese:

Original comment in Japanese:
OLYMPUS OM-D オリンパスブランドについては現在検討中ですが、譲渡後すぐにオリンパスブランドを使用しなくなることはございません。
また、「OM-D」「PEN」「ZUIKO」などのカメラのネーミングは今後も使用いたします。
引き続きご愛好の程、宜しくお願いいたします。


Rough translation into English:
"OLYMPUS OM-D We are currently considering the Olympus Brand, but we will not be able to use the Olympus brand soon after the transfer.
We will also use the name of the camera, such as " OM-d "" pen "" zuiko," and more.
Thank you for your continued support."


Not sure what kind of branding they're going to call the cameras if not Olympus?
 
Olympus is so iconic. That's like calling a Nikon only a Nikkor Camera! I'm not sure how this will pan out in the long term? At least Sony was able to salvage Konica Minolta's photographic system and reinvent it. :shakehead:

Nikon did that. The Nikkorex and Nikkorex F. Nikon marketed the "Nikkor F" in Europe, as Nikon was to close to "Ikon" for a while.

With JIP buying Olympus, "Jippee", "Jip-o-Matic", "Jip-o-Flex", "Auto-JIP".

If I were the company buying this Olympus Division, it would give me the name rights or forget it. Leica is now several independent companies, they each have the naming rights to Leica.
 
I think one way Olympus might have been more successful is not to create basically the same all-round camera in small, medium and large - EM10, EM5, EM1 (with features that work "a little bit worse" in small, and "a little bit better" in large).

Instead it could have been interesting to create a camera model and lens that's "perfect for family events" (fast autofocus with face recognition, good lowlight, selfie-screen), and one "perfect for hikes" (weather-resistant, small and light), and one "perfect for VLogging" (good video/streaming features, selfie screen...), "perfect for street photographers", etc...

With m43's small sensor, Olympus' cameras never would be the "best overall" (which it feels they were shooting for), but they could have been marketed as "the best" for people's specific purposes... Maybe :)
 
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Nikon did that. The Nikkorex and Nikkorex F. Nikon marketed the "Nikkor F" in Europe, as Nikon was to close to "Ikon" for a while.

With JIP buying Olympus, "Jippee", "Jip-o-Matic", "Jip-o-Flex", "Auto-JIP".

If I were the company buying this Olympus Division, it would give me the name rights or forget it. Leica is now several independent companies, they each have the naming rights to Leica.

The loss of the Olympus name badge takes away from that heritage. Even with Sony taking over Konica Minolta, they even lost a little bit of that heritage. I used to work for a certain famous German footwear company and heritage was a big part of the corporate identity and marketing. The general public doesn't know what a Zuiko or OM-D is. I wonder if JIP is just handling warranty and operations cost for a few years before dismantling and selling off all the patents/assets? Nikon, Sony and Canon are all fighting tooth and nail for marketshare, while the L-mount alliance and Fuji X/GF will get the scraps. I'm not even sure how Pentax is still around?

Kids nowadays mostly know phone brands more than they do camera brands!
 
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